Freely Broken
by LokisChampion
Summary: Centaurs are very proud, noble and wise creatures. Traveling in herds, they have strong defenses and big family trees. At least, that's the mold they supposedly fit; however, some are not so lucky. Mentions of rape, don't like, don't read!
1. Chapter 1

Centaurs are very proud, noble and wise creatures. Traveling in herds, they have strong defenses and big family trees. At least, that's the mold they supposedly fit; however, some are both so lucky.

Loki and his son ran through the forest, Loki limping on his rear left leg, for five poisoned arrows had pierced the point of his hip as his hooves dug into the grassy floor, trying to give him better grip and propel him onward. The pair of them had to get out of Laufey's kingdom border by nightfall. If not, they would be hunted down and slaughtered.

Loki would not subject his son to that fate.

"Almost there, father!" His son called from ahead and Loki smiled. The boy's soft black curls resembled in color his straight raven black hair which matched their horse bodies extended from their human waists, black as pitch and shinning of health, which had dulled of late, dark black hooves capped it off as their unkempt, knotted black tails flowed behind their sprinting forms. Only one thing was different from the pair, his son had eight legs instead of four.

"Get to the spring!" Loki called and he sped his pace as did the boy and they ended up in said spring about an hour later, well out of the border they had been fleeing from. Loki was pale and limping on his hind leg as they came to a canter, then a slow, much needed walk for his aching and now hot, poison riddled body. Taking deep breaths to try and soothe the fatigue of his agile body, Loki sat first like a dog and tried not to collapse on his shaking front legs, which when he did lower himself, he tucked them beneath his heaving body and leaning his naked torso on the cool rock behind him.

Loki watched as his son got a leaf and filled it with water from the spring. The hideaway itself was outside of his fathers province, so they were safe from harm and he'd found it himself when he was a child. Running away from his cursed, evil home life which never improved as he'd grown older; his son was living proof of that fact.

"Here, father." His son said, walking over and holding out the leaf full of water. Loki smiled and took it, trying not to slosh it's contents.

"Thank you, Sleipnir." Loki said, sipping the cool water and looking down at the bow and quiver of arrows, slung across the boys body like a satchel would hang, secure and harmless.

A constant reminder that he was determined to make his ten year old son better than Loki ever was.

As Loki finished the water and handed it back to his son, the boy walked back to the stream and resumed to fill it again when Loki felt something. Scanning his gaze along the trees surrounding them, he stopped just short of gazing straight ahead, Loki saw the outline of a creature against a shadowed tree, watching them and unmoving. Loki kicked into high alert.

"Sleipnir." He said in the tone his son knew meant come, watching the shadow as his son dropped the leaf and cantered over. Loki stood on his hind legs first, wincing from the fiery pain shooting through his leg and hefted himself straight on his front legs, Sleipnir now behind him. "Show yourself."

"I mean no harm." A deep voice said with an air of softness to it. The creature walked forward into the light, revealing him to be a centaur, but Loki stared at the incredibly strong torso connecting with the golden body of a strong stallion. Looking back up his human body was a mans attractive face, some blonde whiskers should his lips and jaw matching with his shoulder length blonde locks framing the most astonishing blue eyes Loki had ever seen. "I was sent word by our Watcher someone had fallen into our borders, but he did not say you were injured." The centaur said, and Loki found himself oddly stricken by him. Loki looked back at the arrows protruding from his hip, just now noticing the blood seeping down his black coat, all the way down his leg, now perched on the tip of his hoof to stop the pain from making him too uncomfortable.

"How can we trust you?" Loki asked, looking back at the being.

"We offer a place to stay and healing." He replied and Loki couldn't help but feel something flutter in his heart as the man spoke, something he hadn't felt in nearly a thousand years, since their life cycles were so long. "My name is Thor. Might I hear yours?" Thor asked, walking slowly closer to them, his hooves a lighter brown as apposed to black.

Loki blinked at the advance. "I am Loki, this is my son, Sleipnir." Loki said and smiled as his boy walked out from behind him, smiling comfortably up at Thor, who offered his hand to Loki, who hesitated but took it.

"Come with me. You can meet my herd." Thor said and led them from the spring and Loki had a faint hope that they might belong somewhere for once. Thor held his hand to is warm, toned stomach, cradling his pale one in both of his tan, strong ones, Sleipnir alongside his wounded father.


	2. Chapter 2

As Thor led Loki and Sleipnir into a clearing that showcased a large village for many more of their kind, Loki gazed upon it in awe. Many wooden huts had been made as well as many caves carved from the mountainside which harbored more than half of their civilization. He gazed upon many centaurs giving them welcoming, happy looks while Loki narrowly missed stepping into a fire pit, moving to the side of it while his limp had become worse, the poison had progressed in its taking his body when Thor stopped them in front of three others.

The first was a woman, her torso and back of her horse body was covered in delicate turquoise and purple silks, her brown coat matching the hair on her head, both gleaming in the dimming sunlight as she smiled at Loki and Sleipnir. Her long brown hair falling along her back, resembling a mane as she spoke to some others softly.

The second was a dark skinned man who's color continued along his horse transition, he seemed to have an air about him that Loki couldn't place as he was draped in gold fabrics when Loki's eyes drifted to the third and final member of the company, in the middle of the two.

He was an old, bearded and white haired, one eyed centaur, draped in dark grey clothing over his white body, his hooves a tan color as his lightly grey tail flicked out behind him. He looked to them and smiled, Loki nudged Sleipnir when he caught his son staring at the gold patch over the others eye.

"Thor, you have returned." The white one spoke.

"Father, I bring the ones who were found in our Springs." Thor said. "Loki, this is Odin, my father. Odin, this is Loki and his son Sleipnir." Thor said, introducing them as the two only black centaurs bowed, sticking out among their new surroundings savagely.

"Please rise, friends." Odin said, and they did so. "Loki, you are mated, then?"

Loki stiffened and looked down at his son as he swallowed, looking back to Odin and finding his words. "Any questions regarding my son are spoken in private, without him present, sir." Loki said and Sleipnir nodded when the women stepped forward.

"Perhaps Heimdal would take him on a tour? Let's get you healed." She said and Loki smiled at his son as they were separated, Loki limped into a cave tunnel, leading into a cavern lit with candles and showing bottles of ingredients and potions.

"I'm Frigga, Loki." She said kindly before guiding him to a station, situating him so she could work on his wound and he was facing Odin and Thor.

"So, Loki, are you mated?" Odin asked again, softly.

"No, sir." Loki said. "Ten years ago, I rebelled against my fathers arranged marriage to gain the throne. As punishment, the one I was to marry, quite forcefully, bed me, and I was with child. After I birthed Sleipnir, Laufey changed my gender, so my living punishment will forever will be my only child." Loki said, the feeling of Thor's beautiful eyes watching him a little too much when Thor reached up and placed his hand on Loki's shoulder softly. Frigga then snapped the arrows in half, making Loki take in a hissing breath at the pain that shot through him.

Odin nodded softly. "If it would be of any consideration, we would like to offer you our herd as yours." He said.

"Oh, sir, that's too kind of you.." Loki began, feeling a bit flustered as the arrows were pulled from deep within his leg, making him flinch as the wound was then cleaned by hot water.

"Please consider it." Odin said softly as Frigga coated the wound with an ointment that began slowly guiding the poison back to it, back out of his body. "We offer you a safe haven for the while you need to recover."

Loki nodded. "Thank you, sir. I'll find a way to repay you, I swear it." He said, but Odin shook his head with a kind smile on his lips.

"There's no need for that. Thor will show you to your chambers for your stay here, since it is late. Get some well deserved rest, lad." Odin said and he left with some others as Frigga dressed the wound in some bandages and turned to speak with some other nurses as Thor took his hand and walked him out into the village.

Thor walked Loki to a cave in the middle of the civilization, Sleipnir was already there, sound asleep with a blanket covering his back, a slick leather tunic covering his torso, his bow and arrows in the corner of the room. Loki smiled at his son and walked into the room, slowly settling himself down behind his son, glancing back at the patch over his would when Thor left for a moment.

Loki gently stroked his fingers through Sleipnir's curly hair and began humming a tune they both knew too well when a snapping twig caught his attention, making him stop humming, but it was only Thor returning as he walked into the cave. He walked in close and draped a thick green leather cloak over Loki's shoulders, spilling over his back as Thor patted his shoulders softly.

"See you tomorrow. Sleep well." Thor said softly before reluctantly removing his hands from Loki's shoulders, who began humming the tune again softly, watching Thor leave when he felt increasingly tired.

As he watched Thor's body leave the doorway, he slowly stopped humming the tune to yawn and drift off into a deep, much needed slumber. One they both hadn't had for ages.


	3. Chapter 3

He had been chained to the trees so he couldn't run or defend himself. Shackles bound his wrists and hooves, one around his neck as well and another tight over his navel. It constricted painfully when he tried to breathe deeply, but all he could focus on was he couldn't cry.

He shook terribly, tugging on the chains so as to disguise it. He didn't care if they thought he was mad for trying to get out of an inescapable trap, but he needed to move something to remain sane when it happened.

Everything his world stood for crumbled around him in the following moments, unknowing of who he could trust anymore, where he could possibly go. For what could a disgraced centaur be expected to do?

"Daddy.."

Loki woke with a jolt, his breathing shaky and quick. He didn't realize he was trembling horribly as he sat up from laying atop his sons front legs, who looked concerned for his shaken father.

"I'm alright.." Loki said softly, reaching up and brushing his fingers into his sons hair. "Come here.." He pulled Sleipnir into his arms, who held him securely in his small ones as Loki rocked them softly back and forth. Loki placed his lips on the raven curls his boy possessed and breathed deeply, steadily, which sent the curls whisking in different directions as he heard Sleipnir humming the tune they cherished. A faint smile came to Loki's lips and he hummed along as well before releasing his son and stood; this was when he realized there was no pain in his leg. He looked back and noticed there was some sort of liquid that had leaked from it and down his leg when someone spoke.

"We need to wash it. I know the perfect place."

Looking to the door, Loki smiled softly at Thor and tightened the leather cape over his shoulders a little more when the golden haired centaur presented him with a black leather bundle. Upon taking it, Loki smiled at the leather cuirass that he'd been given.

"Sleipnir." Loki turned to his boy. "Why don't you go play with the others for a while and I'll go get my leg treated." The fowl nodded and galloped out of the room when Thor stepped aside from the doorway, Loki changed into his new clothing and smiled at Thor as he walked out and into the lively village.

"So, where is this perfect place?" Loki asked.

"Somewhere we can revisit." Thor said and slowly twined his arm through Loki's, smiling easily as they walked along. Loki couldn't help but notice how attractive Thor was, but, given his experience, the ones he always liked hated him with all their being and he didn't have the courage to speak about it. Besides, he had just met Thor not one moon ago, it would be much too hasty to speak right now.

Loki calmed his thoughts as they entered the very spring he and Sleipnir had fled last night, looking to Thor with wide eyes. "Please forgive me, I didn't intend any trespassing...I had no idea.."

"Be still." Thor said calmly, smiling gently and guiding Loki to the side of the spring holding the waterfall. Thor filled a leaf and soon poured the cool water over the wound, which Loki never realized how hot the tissue on his leg was, since he watched a steady stream of steam rising from him and soon after dissolving into the air. "Did that hurt?"

Loki focused back to the present moment when he heard Thor ask about his pain, shaking his head. "No..I can't feel any pain. Thank you.." Loki said softly with a shy smile, tucking some raven hair behind his ear as a blush crept up his cheeks and flushed along his neck.

Thor smiled and resumed to let water flow over his hip a few more times before getting his hands wet and massaging the water into his coat. His rubbing and scrubbing on the thin, subtly shinning fur, Loki had to stifle his look of relaxation that he'd never felt before when it was over. Thor stood and walked to Loki.

"Would a walk suit you?" He asked and Loki nodded, Thor again linked their arms together and walked from the secluded spring and through the dank forest. Thor asked gently. "What were you humming this morning?"

Loki exhaled softly, wetting his lips with his tongue. "Well, that's a long story to tell..but I suppose if I tell someone, I'd want it to be you.." Loki said with a smile, looking to Thor and back to the ground before he started. "As you know how Sleipnir was conceived, my father released me of my bonds, naturally, I ran. I finally settled in a cave on the cusp of our kingdoms boundary, and lived out the pregnancy. However, it was a very...difficult birth."

Loki vaguely noticed Thor soothingly rubbing his leather clad arm, and pressed on.

"After Sleipnir was delivered, I bled profusely, my body weak and wrecked. Laufey only came to change my gender, which did nothing to heal my wounds or slow the bleeding. Soon after I'd lost a considerable more amount of blood, Sleipnir was ready and wanting food, which I physically couldn't provide anymore. That's when the fairies came."

"They saved you?" Thor asked.

Loki nodded. "They healed me and nursed me back to as proper health as they could, which took about a week. They fed my baby until he could scavenge for his own food, throughout that time, they sang that melody to us for a peaceful nights sleep, every night for what seemed like ages."

"That sounds incredible." Thor replied, granting the attention of those brilliant green eyes and a soft smile.

"I owe them my life, yet they don't take any of my offerings." Loki said sadly when Thor stopped them in a flower filled clearing of the forest.

"You still see them?" Thor asked.

As if on demand, some three fairies flew out to Loki from the flowers,which they made grow here, and chattered with Loki in their native tongue. What interested Thor was the fact that Loki spoke that tongue as well and he had no way of understanding what they were speaking about. He smiled upon Loki looking happy for a few fleeting moments, listening to the giggles coming from the winged people, making Loki chuckle when he seemed to ask them a question. The fairies shook their heads vigorously, Loki looked down to the flowery ground, but the fairies fluttered into his line of sight and bestowed kisses to his nose and forehead, flying off with waves of farewell and disappearing to their hiding places.

"Loki, if you don't mind me asking.." Thor inquired gently as their eyes met again. "Was there a worse reason for not marrying him?"

Loki's eyes fell to the forest floor again before he mustered up all the courage left inside him, looking to Thor. "He hit me.." He said softly and Thor simply looked at him, soon taking Loki into a tight hug.

"I hope you find a life to treasure with us, Loki. I wish you peace granted by the stars.." He said into Loki's ear, and Loki wrapped his arms around Thor and held him tightly, the pads of his fingers clenching into Thor's bare skin. Burying his face into the stronger centaurs neck, he wept, shaking softly in Thor's arms as these were words he'd never heard before. These words were happiness he'd never thought he'd receive in his lifetime.


	4. Chapter 4

Loki, Sleipnir, Thor and the other centaurs all sat in a grand circle around a roaring bonfire. Evening was descending around them and Loki temporarily threw his and his sons troubles away for the moment. They were all laying down with their front legs tucked beneath their lean, beast bodies as Loki smiled at a joke someone across the way had said, making laughter collide around them.

Sleipnir was sitting at Loki's side, leaning into his father as he toyed with his new bow. He'd turned eleven that day and the fairies came by to give him an enchanted weapon, such so that he wouldn't miss his intended target. Loki chuckled at his boys eagerness to shoot and ruffled his pale fingers through his pitch black curls, who smiled at the common gesture.

"Look, mama!" A call from another child caught Loki's ears, soon making his eyes follow. The fowl was pointing excitedly at the rising moon as he peered back at his mother. "Maybe we'll hear it!"

Loki watched as skin everyone was settling into silence, their eyes holding the moons shimmer when Thor laid down beside Loki, but the pale one barely gave any acknowledgement as he stared at the moon as well.

All of the , transfixed in this moment when it happened.

The howl was worse than he could remember. The pitch was low, yet it had a scratchy tone to it, unhealthy or defective. As it filled their ears and plagued the air, Sleipnir reacted just as quickly as Loki went rigid.

"Hati!" Sleipnir mumbled under his panic stricken breath as he quickly clung to Loki, wrapping his small arms around his leather clad torso. Loki placed his own arms around his shaking son, one hand stroking through his hair while the other was secure on his tense shoulder blades.

"Who?" Thor asked softly while placing a comforting hand on Loki's shoulder.

Loki kissed Sleipnir's curls before peering back at Thor, only now realizing they had gained the entire circles attention.

"The wolf Hati, hunter in the moonlight." He said, feeling Sleipnir trembling beneath his fingers, instinctively squeezing him tighter. "One of three." The howl still pierced the night around them. "This is a warning.."

"Why does he frighten Sleipnir?" Thor asked, worry in his eyes, those blue orbs Loki found otherworldly yet comfortable, safe.

"An accident, nearly seven, or even eight years ago. He's been terrified of them ever since." Loki said softly, a slight tremor in his voice as he looked down to his pride and joy, who was beginning to recover as the howl slowly died away.

"What's the warning?" Thor asked, not wanting to push Loki into speaking of something he didn't wish to elaborate upon.

"An eclipse. The first in five hundred years." Loki said. "Where all three wolves converge on the earth and hunt for the entire night."

"When?"

Loki blinked a few times and peered back down to Sleipnir, stroking through his hair as he was calm and collected now, or as much as he seemed to be. "Two moons from now."

There was a collective gasp and murmur settling among the circle as slight panic set in. Loki abruptly moved to stand when Sleipnir's attention was now talking with Sif, and he walked away from the group. He was desperate not to become the talk of the village again, hoping he wouldn't become the only source of entertainment and sick, twisted joy for them.

"Loki?"

The raven haired centaur turned to find Thor slowly walking towards him with an anxious expression written on his face. Loki swallowed and sighed, looking back to his boy surrounded by his new friends and spoke softly. "I can't let anything happen to my baby..."

As a tear or two slipped from his eyes, he wiped it away as Thor cautiously took the weeping one into his arms, holding him tightly with protection in his stance.

"Please help me, Thor...I don't have anyone else.." Loki cried in a wobbly whisper, sniffing gently.

"Sshh.." Thor soothed, stroking the back of Loki's head, his fingers threading through his black hair occasionally. "No harm with befall you at the hands of Laufey, Hati or anyone again."

"But you don't know that." Loki said, pulling away. "How can you protect me when Laufey's bound to send them here? He wants me dead, Thor. Made an example of, you would protect me still if they came here on the eclipse?" Loki asked, a little venom entering his voice. "Am I honestly supposed to believe you, a total stranger, would lay his life in front of mine and my offspring without hesitation?"

"Yes." Thor said. "And if they do come, if they do get past me in any way, I will personally deliver you to the safety of a higher power." Thor said in a calm yet stern voice before falling back to his soft, soothing one. "Do you understand?"

Loki couldn't believe what he was hearing. How was he supposed to trust someone he'd met not two moons past? From where he stood, he didn't see another way out, no other choice in the matter. If the life of his son depended on it, so be it.

Loki nodded softly. "Yes, I do." He said. "Thank you."

Thor simply smiled and motioned back to the bonfire. "Shall we return?" He asked, taking Loki's hand easily in his, making Loki hope Thor couldn't see his blush and they walked back to the circle. All had returned to how it was, pleasant, peaceful and welcoming in festivities before the howl broke it all.


End file.
